128

"Oh I am so glad to be back. I can't wait to be home." I moaned as we finally hit the road leading into the city. I could practically sense my bed waiting for me. And maybe some choom time. I wanted to hang out with Hiromi, and my crew. Bother Jun, maybe get into a wrestling match with him or something.

Just anything besides travel through dirty desert.

"Not home just yet. We need to hand off everything… If you are up to sticking around." The way she said it! I knew it!

"You do want me around!"

"Can I change my mind?" She asked and I just laughed at her, and shook my head.

No. Once you become my choom, it's forever. No take backsies.

"So Rogue huh? That'll be interesting."

"First time in the Afterlife?" She asked and I almost jerked a bit in surprise at the question.

"Well, yeah actually. That's where we're going?"

"That's where Rogue is, so that's where we're going." She said and I just nodded slowly, I guess I was finally getting my Afterlife debut.

I was quiet for the rest of the drive, the sand and dirt slowly shifted into urban streets.

It's good to be home.

The drive to the Afterlife didn't take too long. The sun was starting to droop as we pulled into the small parking lot. Panam's truck stuck out pretty badly from the vehicles parked around, but she found a spot and then the roar of the engine quieted down.

"Alright let's go." She stepped out taking a moment to stretch from the long drive. I joined her, but mostly I was wiping at my hair watching as dust fell out of it. If only keeping Rogue waiting wasn't that bad an idea I'd go get a shower. That and holding onto the shard Rogue wanted was just asking for trouble.

We walked down the familiar stairs, and I did look behind me at the wall to see if I could see the Tarot that appeared for V.

Nothing.

The bouncer was the same big guy I remembered and he scanned Panam almost casually, then glancing at me, and doing the same.

I could see the moment he scanned me and found me not on whatever list that Afterlife kept. Panam noticed it too. "Relax Em, she's with me."

He lifted an eyebrow but shrugged and stepped aside. "Welcome to the Afterlife kid." The man offered almost sarcastically as he side eyed Panam.

"Thanks." I offered back as I followed in after Panam. I don't really care if he thinks me being here is weird or something. I'm not one of the Night City Crazies that wanted to die in a blaze of glory anyways.

I was just here for the gig. Then I would go home, take a shower and a nap. This week had kinda sucked.

I shook it off and looked around. I had been here before of course, in a game at least. It hadn't changed much. The neon lights, the music playing, the different teams of edgerunners in side rooms, at the bar, or just hanging around. Some of them planning, some of them partying, and some of them dying.

I looked away from the side room that had a choom laid out on a couch as his team huddled around him.

I don't think that one made it.

"Claire! My usual!" Panam called out as she stopped at the bar and the bartender threw Panam a smile before throwing together a drink.

I wasn't paying attention to that though.

Because someone much more interesting was at the bar.

It was the pink jacket that caught my eye first, and then I stilled because I recognized that look.

Of course it wasn't the exact same, translations from game visuals, or anime visuals to real life made things look different but… I had seen that woman's last moments. It was impossible not to recognize her.

It was kinda hard to forget Sasha.

"Feel the rythm, of the streets." I mumbled to myself. The first lines of the song that blasted through my brain.

I guess I knew my next song. Also, I guess I knew my next mission. Sasha was still alive… For now. I couldn't help but stare as Sasha threw up three fingers at Claire who nodded, already preparing her drinks.

Of course that was when I got caught staring. Blue and pink eyes locked onto me. Unique custom colors. It was pretty.

I honestly was surprised as well,, they weren't Kiroshi, but some other brand, still high quality. But she had caught me looking. Eyebrow quirking up, as she gave me a look.

Okay Motoko. This is it. Just… Meet the catgirl. Chat her up! Yeah. Use your skills in cool and brain to just chat with a woman. Easy! Sure…

"Hi." I said blurting it out without being able to stop. "I'm Motoko. I like your optics!"

"Hello Motoko, who likes my optics. I'm Sasha." She said in a teasing tone that made me still for a moment. Wait… That was! She thought I was trying to flirt! Abort! Abort! No wait. Can't abort! I need to save her life!

So instead of saying anything I just kinda fumbled around for a moment before taking the seat next to her. "So edgerunner huh? That's preem! What's your specialty?" I asked after a moment of awkward fidgeting. I mean I already knew she was a netrunner. I was just hoping I could pull her into a netrunner conversation and then force her to become my friend.

"Is this your first time in here? Get brought in as part of a gig or something?" She asked me instead of answering, I blinked before pouting a little.

"I was working protection on a gig. Panam works with Rogue so here I am." I said, making sure to enunciate that I wasn't the protection target. "It was quiet mostly except for the Raffen, but they aren't that bad." I demurred.

"Oh? Maybe you can tell me about it some time." She replied with smile as Claire was suddenly there with three drinks that she picked up and it was obvious Sasha was about to disappear.

Quick think fast!

"Netrunner right?" I said, I had been hoping to fall into a conversation but it would be a bit too strong to follow her back to her group.

She did stop as she held the drinks. "I am."

"So am I. Programmer too, but it's one of my specialties. Uh. If you ever need some programming work done." I said and then sent her my number.

She looked more amused than interested, which was not what I was going for, so I had to do something.

"I do programming work for Yoko. She can vouch that I'm good. Feel free to reach out. I do consultations for free." I offered and there it was.

The look of interest on her face. Sure I had to name drop Yoko, as proof… Should have used the Sexy Motoko Voice! Dumbass! Of course she thinks I was being cute sounding like a teenager.

Dummy! Idiot!

"Maybe I'll give you a call sometime for that… Consult." Then she walked away.

But the whole time I was a little distracted because I had never heard someone say consult and make it sound…

"Motoko!" Panam called out, pulling me away from my staring at the woman.

"Yeah I'm coming." I tore my eyes away from Sasha and followed Panam towards an indented couch space.

One that had a certain fixer.

Panam was stopped at the entrance, a big guy… I can't remember his name. He had a weird haircut and he was Rogues Bodyguard.

He was holding out a hand to Panam, stopping her from entering as I walked up, his optics, a set that I didn't recognize but were completely inhuman, were watching both of us for any trouble.

I just kept my hands away from my guns, and kept it casual. He wasn't going to start anything without trouble coming his way first.

"C'mon Squama, I don't have time for this."

"Da boss is busy."

"We were just waiting at the bar, I know she knows we are here! Tell her to stop playing this corpo shit." Panam snapped at him, but calmed herself a moment after with a deep breath, and a sip of her whiskey.

"Wait." He replied simply and Panam tsked at him but did just that, but never stopped glaring at the booth that we could see a bit of Rogue sticking out. Looks like she was going to wait. I just ignored her impatience and waited calmly.

Either Rogue really was busy and so we had to wait, or she was doing some powerplay on Panam, and… We would have to wait.

No point in getting irritated about it.

Finally a few minutes later, Rogue called out. "Let them in."

Squama I guess? Stepped aside and let the two of us enter the little booth area Rogue kept for herself, although the big guy moved behind her watching over us for any threat.

"Panam." Rogue greeted casually the older woman uncaring about Panam's glare.

"Rogue."

"Alright kid stop glaring, I was on an important call. Shard." She demanded and Panam glared, but pulled the shard out of her neck and handed it over. Rogue pushed it into a data reader and nodded and then her eyes went blue.

A moment later Panam perked up and nodded. "The other part?"

"Like I said, you do this gig, I'll put you to work and take care of the rest." Rogue answered instantly. Then she looked at me. "Interesting choice, bringing a kid along. Motoko Kusanagi."

"Rogue." I greeted back. Her resting bitch face might have had more effect on me, if I didn't already know all about her. And wasn't that worried.

"I don't usually recommend kids on gigs I send out Panam."

Panam gave Rogue a look, and so did I. I did appreciate that the look Panam was sending the older woman screamed stop fucking around.

Mine was just an eyebrow lift. Waiting for her to get on with it.

If she knew my name, no way she didn't know at least a little about what I had been getting up to.

Rogue just scoffed and threw a hand at the two of us. "Yeah yeah, don't get so upset. I've heard your name before." She offered, but then she simply turned to Panam with a more serious look. "Good work. You were a little late, but I heard about the problems with the route. I'll be in touch in a few days with more work. Get settled in." Rogue offered and then she basically just waved her hand at us.

Telling us to get lost.

"I'll be seeing you Rogue." Panam offered as she stood, and I followed shortly after. It was a little sad that Rogue wasn't really interested in working with me, at least not yet, but also not a terrible thing. It wasn't like I wanted to deal with her attitude either.

As I walked out, I looked in the corner. Spotting Sasha sitting in a booth. Maine and Dorio were there, and it was obvious the three of them were plotting.

They were in the wrong spots for it to be 'that' day though. So I felt myself relax. I'll have to hope that my offer caught her interest. I would love a good reason to make more programs, and working with someone at Sasha's level?

Hell maybe even pulling her into gigs, or vice versa?

Sure I wasn't a huge fan of Maine, but the man was a tank. We could probably do some fun gigs.

But that was for another time. I followed Panam as she stalked outside back to her truck before she stopped.

"Motoko… Thanks. For backing me up on the gig and everything. I-I really appreciate it." She said with a relief showing on her shoulders that I was just starting to put together.

"Rogue offered you money and a place to live in Night City for help with the gig didn't she?"

"Yeah. Yeah she did… Here." Her eyes flashed blue for a few moments and I got an update. A good chunk of eddies into my account.

"You sure? I think you're struggling for eddies right now more than I am."

"It's fine. Rogue pays well, and if I'm right I'll have consistent work under her." I nodded at that and we both stood kind of quiet for a moment, neither sure what to say.

"Then if you ever need backup. Don't hesitate to call me up okay?" I demanded from her being firm on this. "We are chooms now after all."

"Hah. I guess we are… Thanks-No I'll stop. I'll stay in touch." She says instead and I smile at that.

I walked away as Panam jumped into her truck. It wasn't long before my Quadra pulled up just a bit down the street and I jumped in ready to go home.

I was totally ready for a shower.

—---

I trudged up into the apartment a mess of old dust coating me as I opened the door to the apartment and flopped my backpack full of stuff I had packed for what should have been just a few days of travel.

It had been a bit longer than that, so I was sweaty and wearing dirty clothes.

"I'm home!" I called out, seeing Juns boots at the entrance as I pulled my own dusty boots off with a bit of effort.

"Motoko!" Jun called out from his room and he came stomping out, wearing sleepwear and looking like he had been in bed for a while, his hair was sticking up in a mess, but he didn't hesitate to charge at me like a bull when he saw me.

Stupid grin on his face the whole time.

"Ughhhh." I groaned at him as he picked me up and pulled me into a big hug. "Jun I'm messy."

"You were only supposed to be gone a few days. You didn't even call!"

I groaned as Juns hug quickly morphed into a grapple as he wasn't letting me go.

"We had to avoid some Raffen Shiv. They apparently took over an entire section of the main path to Seattle so we had to go around both ways. It added so much wasted time to the trip."

"You didn't call." He said his arms tightening around me, which was actually a big in warning.

"I called Hiromi!" My words did the opposite and Jun only squeezed me tighter.

"Hiromi told me she called you." He grumbled looking down at me with a disappointed older brother face. I was a little too focused on breathing though as he was slowly tightening the grip.

Until eventually I had to break.

"Sorry!" I managed to gasp out and then I was released sucking in a deep breath for air as I could finally breathe again.

"Next time you had better call or at least text." He demanded fully in his big brother role. "Also you stink, take a shower." My kick for his shins was deftly dodged away from, as if he knew it was coming and then he was walking away laughing as I glared at his stupid back.

Revenge will be mine.

—--

Washed, cleaned and feeling normal again I stepped out of the bathroom as I continued to rub my hair dry with a towel.

Jun was waiting for me on the couch with a pair of steaming bowls of Ramen, and giving me a dopey smile.

"This doesn't mean you're forgiven." I told him, but I couldn't help but slide onto the couch and cuddle up for Ramen and attention.

"How was your trip?"

"Boring. Super boring. I had to stay focused the whole time and Panam is being super sensitive because she just left the Aldecaldos so she wasn't really in the mood for chatting. So I mostly just watched the horizon for threats." Then I stuck ambrosia into my mouth.

Seattle Ramen had been good, but it was nothing compared to eating food at home.

"Well other than Hiromi calling me a bunch to see if I heard from you yet." He said, throwing me a look. "It's been quiet."

"That's a good thing. Quiet is good." He just shrugged at my words.

"The gig you went on the trip for, did it end well?"

"Oh yeah. It was just boring. They had set up what looked like an ambush on Panam, but I was overwatching the area. They had a sniper too, but I hacked into his Ashura so it would shoot his boss if he fired. The handoff was peaceful. Panam handled it, and then we drove all the way home… We did get chased by Raffen at one point. It was the only fun part of the whole gig. But they ran away when I shot at them."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, like I said Jun, it was super boring."

"Huh. Well you've officially traveled farther than I ever had. What was Seattle like?" Oh. Jun had never left NC.

"Okay so We first saw it on the horizon, lots of big buildings, barely any ads though. It was actually kinda dark." I went through everything I saw in Seattle for him. Describing it as best as I could for my interested brother.

—--

I woke up the next morning around the time the sun was coming up. I had gone to bed early wanting to just relax and reset before getting back into things.

I headed out after getting on some clothes and jogged as much as I could to the gym downstairs.

The sun was just coming up, but I could tell it was going to be a warm one. Not a cloud in the sky today.

Grumbling a bit at this, I headed into the gym area to find it wasn't empty like I had expected, despite it being so early.

A few early birds were already working, but I just shrugged and found something open then making sure I was tucked away I went to work.

Squats were the exercise of the day. Since other than my ankles it was all flesh. I fell into the rhythm, up and down. Pushing my body long after it started being too much.

I was sweating as I continued, glad that I was in a corner tucked away from everybody so no one was watching what I was doing. Because anyone with a head on their shoulders would be wondering why I was destroying myself like this.

But I wasn't because the more I pushed the more I was getting alerts in my head for Body. The more I pushed myself, the more I gained.

I took a short break grabbing some food, and drink from the vending machines outside the gym area when I noticed a familiar face.

"John."

"Hey Kid. Hayato's been bugging me about a rematch with you sometime."

"But I gave her my number if she wants to fight?" I answered instantly a little confused.

"Heh. She's shy despite how she acts. Probably isn't comfortable doing it herself. So, you up for it?"

I looked down at my knees that were basically shaking together considering how badly I had thrashed myself with squats.

"Maybe tomorrow."

He noticed my own look and nodded, although he was looking at me as if trying to figure something out.

"That looks like you overdid it."

"Yeah." I agreed instantly. "Been stuck in a truck for a while, I pushed a bit too hard today."

"Overdoing it doesn't help." He reminds me, before sighing. "Here hold on."

He walked over to one of the gonks and was handed an inhaler which he carried back and offered to me.

"Take a puff of that every hour for a few hours.."

"What is it?" I asked instead of taking it. I wasn't one to just take drugs someone randomly gave me.

"Mostly after-workout. It'll help heal those blown out legs of yours faster. A bit of pain killer as well, light stuff. It's something I teach the guys here to make for themselves."

I hesitated, and took the inhaler, but I didn't puff it.

He snorted at that and just shrugged. "I'll tell Hayato, set something up for her tomorrow. Probably won't be at Gomorrah though. You know the Deravaja?"

I blinked, "Sensei's Dojo? Sure."

"Ah, good. Hayato is one of his students. I'll send you a time, but the spar will be there."

"Suuure?"

He chuckled as he waved me off with that.

I guess I had a spar tomorrow.Instead of huffing the drugs I was handed, I just took a Maxdoc, and then I did the smart thing and drove to Viks. I was already scheduled for a checkup for my chrome. I had been out of the city on the road for over a week after all.

But I stopped to see Misty first. Walking into her shop, and taking a moment to enjoy the soft sounds of her space.

"Motoko!"

"Hey Misty!" I called out in return as the blonde smiled at seeing me. Stepping away from the counter to come throw a hug around my shoulders, of course that was a mistake.

"Motoko it's good to-Oh!" She chirped out pulling away.

"Sorry sorry I just finished exercising. I'm all sweaty." I apologized and she just laughed but didn't go for another hug.

"How are you?"

"I'm good! I just got back into the city. I went up to Seattle on a gig!"

"Oh! I always thought about traveling to Seattle, but with my shop." She waved at her place and I nodded.

"Honestly? It was kinda weird. I actually like Night City more." I admit in a horrified whisper that has Misty chuckling lightly.

"Well welcome home then. Here to see Vik?"

"Yeah. I should get checked out and stuff. I want to make sure I don't have dust anywhere that I can't get to." She nodded at that and sent me off with a wave.

Quickly jumping down the stairs I found Vik wasn't alone.

"Jackie!" I called out smiling at the big man that was being run through a bit of boxing work by Vik.

"Huh?" Which is exactly the time Vik used the opportunity to bop the bigger man right on his nose. "Hey Vik!"

"No distractions." The Ripper said but he was grinning regardless as he lowered his arms and ended their workout. "Hey Kid. You alright?"

"Not injured! But I just got back into the city! I had a gig that took me to Seattle, and I wanted to get checked over." I responded, but then I walked over and settled into Viks rolly chair. "But no rush. Go ahead and finish playing with Jackie, I'll wait."

"We aren't playing-"

"This isn't playing Hermanita." Both men argued before realizing that my smile was broad and amused. They both huffed at me, realizing I was just messing with them, so Vik brought his padded hands back up.

"Alright Jack. Let's keep going."

Jackie just nodded and the two went back at it. Jackie actually had good endurance I noted. Unlike Jun for example who just relied on his chrome, Jackie actually was fully into the training.

Although considering it's Jackie. I wouldn't mind if he relied on some protective chrome a bit more.

Eventually both men tired out and Jackie took a seat and drank some water as Vik gestured for me to head over to the ripper chair. Vik was still wiping his forehead with a towel when he rolled over.

"So no issues you know of?"

"I mostly just want to check for dust and junk. I was out on the road for more than a week." He nodded and pulled up his scanner starting in on the inspection..

"Seattle huh? That's preem Hermanita. I didn't get my first gig out of the city until I was in my twenties." Jackie offered and I smiled at that.

"Thanks Jack. I know a Nomad that needed an extra shooter to watch her back. She's not Raffen, but she sorta left the Aldecaldos for now."

Jackie whistled, "You don't hear them do that much."

"Yeah it's a family thing." I added and Jackie really frowned then.

"Well that I can understand."

"Not too many problems here kid. Although you got some dents and dings." Vik confirmed giving me a look.

"I've done maintenance!"

"Yeah I can see that… It's why there are so many dents." He says and then bursts out into laughter.

I felt my jaw drop before I realized Vik was fucking with me.

"Laugh it up old man." I grumbled at him, but even Jackie was chuckling in that booming belly laugh of his at my reaction.

"You're doing fine, kid. You do have some dust in the joints, that's normal especially for nomads or anyone traveling through the desert. Give me a few minutes and I'll clear you up." He said still laughing as he rolled away grabbing a big canister that was basically an oil washer.

I rolled my eyes and leaned back, as Vik walked over and started opening up my arms. Panels popping open to show the sensitive interiors after a few moments of his deft hands accessing every port.

I shivered a bit the first time he blew the oil into my arms, it felt super ticklish, but after that first few spurts, I got comfortable with it.

"So Jackie. You going to get any more chrome? You still need some subdermal don't you?"

"I got some Hermanita." He said, knocking a finger against his forehead. "Can't get too much of the stuff though. Camilla doesn't like it much." He said something kind of horrifying as he patted his shoulder.

That specifically wasn't armored.

Just like his stomach.

Just like the stomach that he would bleed out from.

"You're kinda a gonk, and Camilla is a double gonk if she doesn't want you to have more protection." I said bluntly, actually holding back from really snapping at the man.

It wouldn't help. Telling someone in love, or dating that they are with someone they shouldn't never works. It just pushes them away. So instead of saying anything more I just looked away from the big oaf. Stupid gonk.

I'll just make sure you never step foot anywhere near Konpeki Plaza.

"Hey that's not…" Jackie went quiet and I noticed Vik had intruded. Yeah snapping at him was stupid. Certainly not going to get anything done that way.

The room was quiet for a while as Vik continued to work before he finally finished. All of my chrome got a going over including my ankles which thankfully hadn't been too bad. Stuck in boots had kept the dust out.

"You know, you'd get less gunk in these with a good covering." Vik finally spoke up, breaking the silence between the three of us.

"But I like it!" I argued instantly, holding my arms against my chest to keep them from Vik who just laughed.

"Well just know a real skinn covering will protect the insides better. But it's your choice. Nothing I'm not used to." He said and I nodded at that.

Jackie I noticed was over by the TV watching the boxing match instead of being his usual friendly self.

Dangit.

I left without a word. I couldn't apologize to him right now. Which might just be necessary. Camilla was a terrible choice. Misty would be better of course. But not wanting Jackie to armor up?

Fucking scop of a woman.

In the end I also asked Vik to tell me what was in the inhaler that I had been given and he assured me it was normal workout stuff. Perfectly safe if I wanted to use it.

I just shrugged.

—--

So I had a whole bunch of different stuff on my plate, but I was mostly waiting for the big one.

Would Sasha call me?

If she didn't in a week, I would have to do something drastic. I didn't want the woman to die. Not after seeing what causes her last stand.

Fucking corps.

Fortunately she had created a secondary distraction for me. After Viks checkup I went home and settled onto the couch with my guitar.

Let you down. It was a very Cyberpunk song, and I wanted a copy of it. It was definitely a favorite of mine, and having seen Sasha I wanted to listen to it.

There were a lot of tones and noises in the song, so it took me a long time to get every sound I would need programmed into the music box.

As I was working Jun came home from work throwing his TC jacket over the back of the couch as he stopped to grab some food and drink and then settled onto the couch near me.

"What are you working on?"

"New song." I muttered, semi distracted as I was setting up the rhythm track for the song. It wasn't exactly a rock song after all.

"Oh?" He prompted, making me shake away the music boxes track creation toolkit. I popped my personal link from the box as well just so I could move away from it.

"It's… A bit different from most of what I've done so far. It's not rock or anything. More of a… Night City sound." I said, yeah I liked the way that sounded.

"Sounds awesome."

"It's not Us Cracks, you won't like it." I told him and he just laughed at my tone.

"I like your stuff. When are you going to start selling your music?"

"Probably never."

"C'mon Motoko, you are really good. I want to see you up on a stage some day." Jun said, smiling all proudly at me.

As if I want to see that! I quickly retaliated and kicked at him, but his Motoko sense must have been working because he jerked away and I missed. Instead he just broke into laughter.

"You're all embarrassed!"

"I'm not!"

"You are!"

"Not!"

"Totally are." He assured me with a big smile on his stupid face as he looked on.

"Shut up!"

He just laughed at me. "So how about you show off for me? I want to hear your new song."

"It's not done!" I hissed and he nodded, resting back and putting up his feet on the table looking perfectly content to just sit there and wait.

Realizing that I snapped at him. "It's a new song! It could take a while!"

"I'll wait."

"I might get stuck on it and take a week!"

"Then I'll go to sleep and work and when it's ready I'll listen." He assured me with that calm cool tone he had started to develop over the months.

Ahhhhh! I was weak!

I grumbled and grabbed my music box. I'll finish the stupid song then! Doubt he'll even like it since it isn't Us Cracks!

I pushed my personal link back in and started to work. Let you Down, didn't have a super fast pace, but it needed to be perfect. This song was… Special? Important? No, that wasn't right, it was just…

It just needed to be perfect.

I hadn't heard back from Sasha. I had no idea when the Biotechnica job was happening. All I knew is it should happen soon. But there was another reason I was making this song right now.

Perfect Musical Memory let me remember the song exactly. Every note, every beat, every lyric… And every scene.

Music was an art, and many artists combined art with their music.

Let you down, basically was a music video. Sasha's story from start to end. As I worked on the song I was remembering. I was reviewing what it had shown me.

Sasha's big problem was the Arasaka Robot R Mk.2. Well they would be Biotechnica Robots now, but Araska were the ones that made them.

They were tough. Armored, and unflinching. She had used some powerful hacks to try and disable them, but it hadn't really worked.

She needed a way to kill them, and a way to defend against their attacks.

One of those was easy. Weapon Glitch would solve the problem outright, but I was going to need to do some work on it, to make sure it would punch through the security around a high end corpo defense unit.

Then it came down to how to kill the bots.

Short Circuit was a good hack against drones…

I would need to get a copy of it from Yoko.

But I shook off the plotting to focus more on the song. Track after track was added in, making sure everything was fit together, I listened to the song I was creating over and over making sure everything was timed correctly, and then it was time for the lyrics.

I glanced at Jun who had been idly watching me for the last while with that stupid proud smile on his face.

And then I was done with all the backing tracks, but still had a few lyric additions I needed.

"Gonna sing a bit. Don't bother me!" I demanded earning a rolled eyes from my brother who at this point was totally vegging out on the couch.

"Let you down!" I sang out messing with the reverb in the music box, and then went silent, as I wasn't actually singing the song just some of the backing vocals. "Loooooove!" I crooned out, and then I went through a few of the additional vocal lines, syncing them up, and I was ready. I could feel my ears heating up as Jun quirked an eyebrow at me.

It wasn't a love song! Idiot!

The only thing left was to stand up and actually sing the damn thing. I stood up surprising Jun as I hefted up the music box and settled it into a place for this to work, I ran over to grab the speakers and set that all up so Jun could actually hear the song.

Then I put my hands on my hips and looked… Well it was still up, because Jun was a big boy even sitting on the couch.

"Okay this is the first time anyone has ever heard this song, so you better appreciate it!" I told him firmly as I then exhaled, letting all the air out, changing how my voice would sound a bit, I needed to be closer to Sexy Motoko voice for this.

The music began. The soft melody echoed through the apartment, and I was ready.

"Feel the rhythm of the streets."

Let You Down, if you just read the lyrics was actually almost a fight song. It was just how slow and almost peaceful it was that changed the whole theme. It was a song about failing, yet… Not. About overcoming failure in a way.

Or it was a song about Night City. Or a song about… Well music was subjective like that.

But I sang, destroying the vocals for this song. Considering how many times I had listened to it, I knew every note, and exactly how to best sing it.

The song was just too good.

And then it was over.

The faint ending snares and sound ending in a quiet finale.

To my surprise Jun didn't react for a while. Just staring at me, and I shifted a little uncomfortably under his gaze as he stood and then pulled me into a tight hug.

"It sounded preem Imouto."

—--

So, song was done. Now time for some programming work.

I headed out, taking my Kusanagi instead of the Quadra so I could enjoy the late evening drive through the city.

As I drove I went through all the things I needed. First off, Sasha's defenses, so she wouldn't have to sacrifice herself outright. Then I needed to figure out the best way to help her from there. She had blown up the office at the last moment, and been blown out the window. There was no way I could figure out exactly where she would land without more information…

Could I talk to Maine and make sure he was in the right place? Could he catch her? I shook off the idea. I just needed to give her the tools to escape without it being her end.

I really hoped Sasha reached out. If she didn't, I might have to do something… Drastic. I shook off the thought as the light I was stuck at turned green.

No. I should do what I can. I should do enough that she should be able to survive, but… Her death was her choice. I didn't know the woman, I wasn't family or friend. Her decisions were her own.

I wanted to help, but the real question I should be asking myself is, would I risk the wrath of Biotechnica on Jun, or Hiromi in order to save Sasha?

No.

No, I wouldn't. I wasn't a hero, or even that good of a person in the long run. I wanted to save the cat girl, because I had felt something at her death, and I hated the pointless tragedy of it all.

But her death was her own fault. I hated to say it like that but it was true. She made a choice to end her life for a cause.

I pulled around a van drifting between lanes, probably drunk off his ass and zipped around him, my Kusanagi easily accelerating me past the block and away from that annoying little traffic problem.

Sasha was a grown woman. I couldn't save her. Not like a knight in shining armor. I could help, I could give her extra tools, and maybe end up with a new friend, but she wasn't Jun. I wouldn't go out of my way to risk my life, or my family's life, for hers.

Decision made, I focused on the road the rest of the way to the roundabout.

If she did die. If I failed to save her? I would make sure her story was told, that might be all I could do for her.

—---

"Yoko." I greeted happily seeing the dark glasses clad woman standing behind the counter like always.

"Motoko. You are still alive. I'm glad." She offered calmly in that weird monotone she had outside the net.

"What? Oh… Yeah the scav thing… I'm taking a break. Been out of the city for a week on a gig as well."

"Taking a break?" She asked, sounding amused despite her tone. "Well I suppose that's all we can ask for sometimes."

"Yeeeeah." I drawled out at her pointed remark. "Hey. I need a copy of a Short Circuit. You got anything good?"

"I have a very good off the shell version." She confirmed and I perked up at that. A higher level starting point meant the final version I make should be even better!

"You will make your own version again? I would be happy to trade it for a copy."

I opened my mouth to agree before stopping. An image of Hiromi glaring at me, a reminder that I should really stop agreeing to every deal that just seemed easiest to me.

"How about we talk trade."

"Ah, you finally learned." Yoko said actually looking sad like I had just kicked her puppy or something. "Very well. Let's talk, what I can add to the deal."

I was glaring at the older woman more because of the teasing than because I was actually angry. It wasn't like I really cared that much, but don't act like I'm stupid! I just value convenience more than profit!

"I want a few other hacks. I'm thinking about adding a few more weapons to my arsenal."

"Oh? Well I know just the thing then." She said and I felt my eyebrow quirk up as she revealed a shard with a familiar name.

Oh.

Yeah, that wasn't something you wanted every script kiddie on the street to have.

"Let's talk price!" She said for once losing her monotone and sounding like the kitsune she truly was.

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